Thursday, October 24, 2019
Character Development in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay
Writers usually make use of and incorporate certain literary elements into their novels in order to make character development possible. Literary elementsâ€â€Conflict, Theme, and Symbolismâ€â€were employed by Twain, Austen, and Potok in varying levels as well as executed using their own literary styles and techniques in order to show the characters’ development and growth throughout the novels.            In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck braved that era’s social conventions (including his own personal prejudices) by associating with a black man and later helping that person escape from slavery. Jane Austen’s Emma is a lighthearted story about a young woman’s disastrous foray into the pursuit of romantic matchmaking. It shows how Emma’s false presumptions can conflict with the real intentions of the people whose lives she meddles with, and how her misguided actions can create unfavorable results. In Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev, the young man, Asher, was embroiled in the clash between his passion and the sensibilities of his family and religious congregation.            The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn presents social conditions and attitudes during the late 1800s in America, particularly that towards racism. It chronicles the adventures and misadventures of Huck wherein he faces numerous moral and ethical dilemmas. And just like Twain’s novel, Austen’s Emma is a study on the sensibilities and social norms of her time. It tells the story of Emma, a rich and beautiful girl with a lot of idle time on her hands. Although she lives a trouble-free life, it is uneventful and devoid of excitementâ€â€she is a woman, hence, she has no true career prospects. But then Emma discovers that she has a knack for matching couples. She discovers that this endeavor provides her with great amusement so she goes off pairing up the people around her. Lastly, Asher, in My Name is Asher Lev, struggles as he is confronted by two cultural influencesâ€â€that of the Orthodox Jewish subculture that he grew up in, and that of the pervasive, secular Western culture. He is presented with the dilemma of choosing between art and his religion. Just like Huck’s and Emma’s stories, Asher’s story chronicles his quest for truth and self-discovery.            Many authors use the element of conflict to bring about and affirm certain facets of a protagonist’s character. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck faces the conflict between the society’s expectations and what his conscience tells him is right when he is given the opportunity to help Jim, a black man, escape. He struggles to see beyond the black stereotypeâ€â€what the society has taught him to be right. In the end, Huck chooses to follow what his conscience dictatesâ€â€that Jim is a human being who deserves the same rights as everybody else. He admits about Jim: â€Å"I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n†(Twain, 1999, p. 141). In the end, Huck developed a pure, undiscriminating sense of morality that many people of that era did not posses.            In the novel Emma, the conflict lies in Emma’s inability to understand the true desires and intentions of the people around her, including her own. Emma does not realize this, and fancies herself as a good matchmaker, and as Austen describes in one episode, Emma was â€Å"amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment are for ever falling into†(Austen, 2003, p. 89). Ironically, what Emma thinks of other people (as evinced in the previous sentence), actually applies to her. In the end, Emma realizes that it’s no good making decisions for others and manipulating their lives because only they know and therefore should decide what’s best for them. This discovery also leads her to mature and develop emotionally, and in the end, makes her realize what her heart truly desires.            In his novel, My Name is Asher Lev, Potok portrays the kind of pain and emotional anguish one can carry when one chooses to embrace those things that come in conflict with one’s upbringing and religious ideologies. In a lecture wherein he reveals the analysis to his novels, which included My Name is Asher Lev, Potok states: â€Å"Ideas from this secular world inevitably impinge upon an individual born in a church community or a synagogue community, especially when that individual embarks on a college experience†(Potok, 1896, par. 7). As a young boy, Asher tries to break free from the conservative Hasidic community that shuns the very thing that he was passionate aboutâ€â€art. However, his dream is met with condemnation from almost everyone around him, including his family. The following litany succinctly expresses the kind of backlash and emotional turmoil this conflict has brought upon him: â€Å"So strong words are being written and spoken about me [†¦]: I am a traitor, an apostate, a self-hater, an inflicter of shame upon my family, my friends, my people; also, I am a mocker of ideas sacred to Christians†(Potok, 2003, p. 3). Another point of conflict deals with Asher’s relationship with his father. Amidst the weight of the conflict bearing down on him, Asher chooses his own path and tries to discover his own truths. By confronting these issues, he grows as a human being, artistically and emotionally.            One dominant theme in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is that of racism and slavery. The novel is set in a time where blacks are considered to be no more than property. As the story develops, so does Huck’s character and value-system. Eschewing the societal and cultural norms of the time, he adopts a different moral outlook towards the people around him, especially when he decides to help a black man escape from slavery. In a climactic episode, Huck writes a letter to Miss Watson, Jim’s owner, to tell her where Jim was, but then tears up the letter and says to himself: â€Å"All right then, I’ll go to hell†(Twain, 1999, p. 193)â€â€here, he finally decides to ignore social convention and help Jim.            Marriage is a major theme in the novel, Emma. In the 1800s, marriage was one of the most important concerns for women, especially since they were financially dependent on men and could not have their own careers. Emma takes this into consideration when planning her match-ups and decides on unions which will yield the best material benefit for both parties. However, Emma eschews the idea of marriage for herselfâ€â€when her father tells her not to do any more match-making, Emma replies: â€Å"I promise you to make none for myself, papa; but I must, indeed, for other people. It is the greatest amusement in the world!†(Austen, 2003, p. 10). But in the end, she realizes that she too can fall in love, after all.            One important theme in My Name is Asher Lev is that of Individualism. This was explored in the context of Asher’s adolescent struggle to assert his identity in an environment that rejects the very thing that makes him stand out. When an uncle compares his work that of Chagall, he replies: â€Å"No, my name is Asher Lev†(Potok, 2003, p. 313). Asher is a visionary and has prodigious painting skills, but he is pressured to conform to the conventions of his society. He tries to discover his role as an artist and reconcile it with his faithâ€â€this paves the way to his personal development, not to mention the realization of his gift’s significance.            In Twain’s novel, the Mississippi river figures greatly in the story. It is used to symbolize life; the river’s ebbs and flowsâ€â€its movementâ€â€shows the ever-changing nature of life. The changing tides causes Huck and Jim to come in contact with different people and situations. It represents man’s capacity to changeâ€â€the same way Huck’s attitude and personality changed to embrace the greater morality regarding human existence. It’s also a symbolic representation of freedomâ€â€in the confines of the raft, they are safe. They are in a world where laws do not apply, far from the reaches of society. Huck says: â€Å"We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft† (Twain, 1999, p. 107).            In Emma, charades and word games are symbolic of the misunderstandings in the story. The same way that it’s hard to guess the intimations and desires of the other characters in the novel, word games are meant to be elusiveâ€â€one can easily go wrong and perceive a totally different meaning. In a gathering, Frank makes words for the ladies to decode, but each lady attaches different interpretations to them. Such is Emma’s situation: she does not perceive everyone’s feelings correctly so she makes a lot of false assumptions. This is more evident when she tries to hook-up Harriet and Mr. Eltonâ€â€she construes Mr. Elton’s words and actions as proofs of his adulation for Harriet, when in fact it is Emma the he is interested in. When she finds out, she woefully reflects: â€Å"The picture!â€â€How eager he had been about the picture!â€â€and the charade!â€â€and an hundred other circumstances;â€â€how clearly they had seemed to point at Harriet†(Austen, 2003, p. 106).            Symbolism, particularly those in paintings, also plays a significant part in the novel, My Name is Asher Lev. Paintings were used to convey the abstract and intangible; Asher said: â€Å"I worked for – what? How could I explain it? For beauty? No, Many of the pictures I painted were not beautiful. For what, then? For a truth I did not know how to put in words. For a truth I could only bring to life by means of colour and line and texture and form†(Potok, 2003, p. 369) In his controversial painting, Asher uses the crucifiction scene as a symbolism of his mother’s sufferings, much to the chagrin of his religious community. But even with all the antagonism towards art, he feels that painting was but a natural way to express his feelings.             Literary elements give writers the means to project the qualities as well as develop the personalities of their characters. All protagonists in the aforementioned books were presented with points of conflict that each of them must address and contend with. Various symbolic representations, those that attribute certain intangible meanings to things, events, and other sensuous manifestations, were also utilized in order to highlight the protagonists’ personal issues and struggles. Thematic concepts tell what the stories are about and help reveal how each character progresses. References  Austen, J. (2003). Emma. New York: Oxford University Press. Potok, C. (2003). My name is Asher Lev. New York: Random House. Potok, C. (1986). On being proud of uniqueness. (J. Gladson, Ed.) In La Sierra University         website. Retrieved July 24, 2006, from http://www.lasierra.edu/~ballen/potok/Potok.       unique.html. Twain, M. (1999). The adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Oxford University Press.
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